Every Connection Counts

When I first went into sales, I had a LOT of people tell me that to be successful I had to "focus on the numbers". So I did. For 6 months I completely focused on the numbers. I knew that to sell x number of products, I would have to visit x number of clients, and to visit x number of clients I had to make x number of call. And to make x number of calls, I had to have x number of client in my database.

Yes, it' a lot of numbers. And I did this every day for 6 months. So, at the end of that 6 months, I should have sold x number of products, right?

WRONG! The number of products I sold was not hard to count...it was zero! But hang on, if it was all about the numbers, what was missing? I'll tell you what was missing...everything else! 

No matter how good you are at the numbers, if you don't have all the right "stuff" built in, all it's going to mean is that you burn more potential clients quicker! 

After 6 months of doing the same thing and expecting a different result, I finally realised what was missing. My philosophy that I had adopted from the "professionals" was to "count every connection", whereas in every other aspect of my life, I had always believed that "every connection counts"

Yes, it's critically important to understand the numbers to achieve your targets, but the moment we engage with our clients at a deep and meaningful level, amazing things happen. 

Within a week of this realisation (yes, I can be a slow learner), I turned my business around! It was through the help of an amazing mentor who helped me see where I was going wrong. I went from selling zero to becoming one of the leading sales people in my industry, just by changing my intentions.

The big difference - I was now meeting with people to find their problems and help them with a solution vs. meeting with people to meet my targets. 

Not much changed in what I did other than my focus. Here are the key differences that I saw:

When I was "counting every connection" 

• I was focused on the next call, the next meeting, the next sale. 
• More interested in what I had to sell than what the client had to say
• Following the scripts and forgetting to be real
• Waiting for my chance to close
• Getting caught up in sales techniques
• Focused on the sale, not the relationship
• Using price to try and drive a "deal"
• Hearing but not listening
• Asked very few questions

When I focused on"every connection counts"

• 100% focused on the person I was speaking to at the time
• Focused on finding a solution for them regardless of my products
• Being real and forgetting sales scripts
• Understood that to "close" meant I knew exactly what the client needed, and my product was the perfect match. 
• Understood sales techniques, but forgot about them when I was in a conversation with a client.
• Spent time building the relationship and creating trust and rapport
• Not discussing price until the client was ready, and building massive value first
• Listening to understand, not to sell
• Asked more valuable questions and dug deeper.

And finally, just a word on product knowledge - yes every good sales person will continue to build their product knowledge, but in the beginning, focus on building relationships and when you product knowledge increases, then you can start to help people find the right solutions.